President's Message

october 2020

ACC Education

Dear Maryland ACC Colleagues,

Generating and delivering actionable knowledge (aka, Education) is one of the four pillars of ACC’s Strategic Plan. At the national and state level, ACC has been hard at work delivering on this pillar.

The ACC Covid-19 Summer Education Series concluded on September 12 with a terrific set of webinars. Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf gave a fascinating talk about the experience of Alphabet/Google/Verily in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic. ACC Pennsylvania Governor Dr. Katie Berlacher chaired a panel discussion on lessons learned from the cardiology profession’s approach to Covid-19 in the US, and Dr. Kim Eagle chaired another outstanding rapid-fire review of the latest important science of Covid-19. The webinars can be accessed on-demand without cost here. ACC is continuing educational webinars this fall with its Clinical Spotlight Series. You can see the first set covering Women’s Heart Health, SGLT2 inhibitors, Non-statin LDL management, Treatment of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, and Cardiac Amyloidosis here.

Moving to our region, the Planning Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Capital Cardiology Symposium (MACCS), led by Dr. Andrew Choi and Dr. Victor Soukoulis, has been hard at work planning the fall meeting which will be held virtually on Sunday, November 22 with the FIT Forum happening on Saturday, November 21. The program agenda has been finalized and posted, and features sessions on Heart Disease in Women, PFO Closure, Pulmonary Hypertension, and more. Keynote Speaker Dr. Quinn Capers will discuss Implicit Bias in Cardiology Practice. Registration is open now.

Maryland ACC’s Cardiovascular (CV) Team, led by State Liaison Angela Street, CRNP, MSN, has been planning the Pillars of Cardiology Virtual Learning Series, a series of four meetings over the next seven months on a wide range of interesting clinical topics. The series kicks off on October 22 from 7:00-8:00pm with a discussion of Diagnosis and Management of Cardiac Amyloidosis, led by Abby Hubbard, CRNP, CHFN, and Sara Stout, PharmD, BCPS. You can register here today. For CVTeam colleagues who are not yet ACC members, let them know that ACC is extending free membership through 2021 for new nurses, pharmacists, NP's, PA's, and CV technicians (use promo code CVTFree20).

Many of you have likely heard that ACC made the decision to move the dates of ACC.21 to May 15-17, 2021. While the uncertainties of the pandemic remain, the hope is that moving the meeting to later in the spring will enhance the chances that more members will be able to attend in person in Atlanta. A robust virtual/on-line experience is also being planned in coordination with the live meeting. I can’t wait to be there!

Finally, I am looking forward to the ACC Legislative Conference Virtual meeting next week from October 4-6. The meeting kicks off with a keynote address from renowned political analysts Amy Walter and Charlie Cook on the evening of October 4. We have a two hour legislative briefing and planning session on the evening of October 5, and then we attend virtual meetings with Maryland Congressional staff on Tuesday, October 6. We have over 20 Maryland ACC members signed up for these meetings in two teams – a record for my time in our chapter. We will give you a full debrief next month.

Stay well everyone and enjoy the fall weather. As always, please send MDACC leadership and staff your comments, questions, and suggestions to president@marylandacc.org.

Joseph E. Marine, MD, FACC